So far, this week in lab has been interesting to say the least. I’m still waiting for living mice…our mice keep dying, which is rather unfortunate. However, I’ve learned more staining techniques. I’ve also played with the microscope as well.
The microscope was frustrating at first because I was asked to take pictures of whisker innervation in mice whisker pads. In the beginning, I couldn’t figure out when I was looking at a whisker, let alone a good whisker that I should be taking a picture of. After a couple hours, though, I got used to it. I’ve surprised myself because I’m actually finding it fun to find them and compare them between the two groups we are looking at (it’s even more exciting realizing that there seems to be a difference between the two as well).
One staining that I’ve been trying to do refuses to work. Yikes. We’re trying for the third time tomorrow…hopefully, it will work then. Other mishaps at work include when I accidentally dropped a pair of tweezers in the trash can, when I accidentally flipped over a slide midway through collecting sampes on the sectioning machine with it (oops), and when I accidentally spilled ice all over the floor. In the last case, my mentor, who was with me, chuckled and taught me the art of sliding the ice gracefully under the ice machine so that no one notices. We’ve also been getting a lot more free food thanks to our lab buying stuff from various companies, so that’s nice, too.
I enjoyed the seminar we attended on metabolic systems. If what we covered is any indication of what is taught in biochem, I think I’m going to enjoy that class. I’m a vegetarian, and it made me realize the importance of taking multivitamins since I don’t consume meat. There are so many things that could possibly go wrong. However, the human body is amazing at its ability to compensate for disruptions of various processes and maintain some sort of homeostasis.